400 doctors stand against fossil fuel expansion

Close to four hundred doctors and other health professionals have signed an open letter in opposition to the planned expansion of gas-fired power plants in Ontario.

Why do doctors like myself oppose gas-fired electricity and support renewables?

Climate change is already the greatest health threat we face. We must act quickly to reduce climate pollution and minimize climate-related health threats such as extreme heat, wildfire smoke, and extreme weather events. We cannot, therefore, expand climate-polluting gas power.

Fossil gas is not the harmless “transition” fuel it is sometimes portrayed to be. While burning gas generates fewer carbon emissions than coal, upstream leaks of potent methane make gas just as polluting as coal.

Moreover, fossil gas plants, like coal-powered electricity, contribute to air pollution, emitting health-harming nitrous oxide among other pollutants.

Air pollution is responsible for one in seven premature deaths in Canada. And global rates of premature death in 2020 due to burning gas nearly equalled deaths from coal.

While Ontario seeks to expand its use of fossil fuels in the electricity sector, the federal government is drafting its Clean Electricity Regulations, designed to ensure Canada’s electricity grid generates netzero emissions within 12 years.

Ontario is counting on a loophole that would allow gas plants built before 2025 to continue operating and polluting beyond 2035. And the province is promising that gas plants will continue to get paid by Ontario ratepayers even if plants have to shut down in the future — eliminating financial risk to fossil fuel companies while locking Ontarians into paying more for their electricity.

Instead of fossil gas plants, we need clean renewables such as wind and solar. In a study for Clean Energy Canada released in February, independent consultants at Dunsky Energy concluded that wind and solar farms with battery backup are already cheaper to build than fossil gas plants in Ontario and Alberta.

Wind is now the least expensive source of new power, with electricity from onshore turbines costing only about five cents (U.S.) per kilowatt hour versus nine cents per kilowatt hour from gas. Given that many Ontarians struggle to make ends meet, it’s crucial that we invest in power sources that are affordable, and refrain from locking ratepayers into paying out fossil fuel companies.

Tragically, the current Ontario government cancelled hundreds of renewable energy projects when it came to power in 2018, which would have been producing inexpensive, emissions-free power across the province today.

Ontario must reverse course and do all it can to transition from gas powered electricity to wind and solar energy. As well, Ottawa must ensure its new electricity regulations are airtight and prohibit the expansion of fossil gas electricity.

The health of all Ontarians is at stake.